Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

greenjeans · 2025-03-23 00:33:50

Okay, I know I have a lot of reading ahead of me, but was hoping to get a tip or two from anybody who has done this.

So down at the library today working on fixing it up, the city manager stops by and asks me if we can use some older iPads, the state is replacing the ones they have with new ones for various agencies like firefighters and such, so the old ones are going to be surplus, and our city can get 5 of them for the library for free.

My first thought is to convert them, and turn them basically into simple e-book readers for the most part, so the folks in our small town can check them out and read books on them if they don't have a tablet (most don't, they are older folks), and pre-load them with some royalty-free content but also maintain a database at the library of such content so they can access it and choose particular books that interest them.

I won't have them in hand for a while yet, but am trying to get ahead of it and see what's possible.

Bottom line: I have never in my life used apple products, never tried to convert one to linux, and don't know squat about it.

I can't imagine it's too bad, but the touch-screen support is the main thing i'm wondering about.

Any guidance would be appreciated and it's for a very good cause, we are trying to revive this old library and give folks a reason to read.

Dutch_Master · 2025-03-23 01:36:21

Touch screen support is basically a driver issue in the kernel these days, chances are it'll work out of the box if the particular touch module can be loaded. Probably not easy to find, but see if you can get your hands on the apple tech specs for those devices, then google the touch screen model for compatibility in Linux. If that module is already in the kernel, you're in business and the Devuan installer should recognize it straight away. If the module exists but isn't automagically loaded into the kernel, you may try loading it via the initrd image for your particular kernel. Not recommended for novices, but with guidance still doable. If there is no module, and you can find the actual drivers, you can build and install a module the kernel can use. This gets tricky even for experienced users, but you can still pull it off, taking your time. Worst case, there is no driver (which I'd doubt as apple OS is a BSD variant so there should be) then you're screwed and you'd have to write your own. Unless you're a Linux dev with experience, don't go there.

HTH!

pixie · 2025-05-24 15:49:35

I've never worked on Apple products, but found
https://ipadlinux.org/.

Perhaps it helps.

Rahro · 2025-05-25 07:49:22

There are some other projects as pixie pointed out for loading specific kernel modules for driver supports.
Also the more popular your device is, the higher chance you have at finding people's projects online!

ks · 2025-05-25 09:28:27

I applaud your idea of using old kit for old folk (I'm 74 myself). I've done a
lot of work with EPUB books and I'm quite familiar with Apple's and third
party ebook readers on iPad (and iPhone).

Allow me to point out:

Apple's "Books" (the reading app, previously known as iBooks) is one of
the better ones on the market, far more polished than anything on Linux,
Android or Windows (but still has one or two display bugs that have been
in there for years).

Apple has reputation for top-in-class Accessibility (haven't used these
features myself though because my sight is, after cataract removal, quite
good, and I can read faster than I can listen to tts systems).

Cons:

Depending on the age of the iPads you're going to get, "Books" may not
be installed and, depending on OS version, may no longer be installable.

_Unless_ you have or get an iPad or iPhone that uses a version if iOS
which is still in maintenance, meaning you still get updates and still can
download apps that weren't installed by default.

THEN you can also install the last available version on the older iPads by
going to the appstore and listing all apps that are "not installed on this
iPad". That list shows all the apps installed on your up-to-date new
iPad/iPhone and offers the latest available version to download/install
on the oldie.

I believe that this may, for the old folk you want to serve, be the better
route even though linux is not involved (I say that as someone who
switched from Unix to Linux in '95 or '96 and who has used MSDOS for a
few weeks in the early 80ies and Win 3.11 a few years later for a few
months).

Good luck

ks

Last edited by ks (2025-05-25 09:30:26)

pcalvert · 2025-05-25 13:22:14

My sister gave me an old iPad and, although I thought about it, there's no way I'd try to install any version of Linux on it because it only has 256 MB of RAM. That being the case, I began investigating how I might make it more useful to me, and my investigation led me to some very interesting web pages.

Here are a few:

Legacy iOS Jailbreaking (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV)
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegacyJailbreak/

Legacy iOS Kit
https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/Legacy_iOS_Kit

How to Jailbreak and install Apps & Games on iOS 5 and iOS 6 (Working 2024)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NOs5pWtrJY

By the way, when I was reading up on this, I noticed that the iOS jailbreaking community uses programs packaged as DEB files (at least some of the time) to install new apps on old iOS devices. That's not really important, but I thought it was interesting.

greenjeans · 2025-05-26 15:21:41

Thanks for the info and links folks!

Looking like postmarketOS is working on such and is probably the best hope for the future, but not solid as yet.

In the meantime I guess @ks's advice is probably best to get them up and running.

We have done a mountain of work on this library, still trying to catalog all the volumes, and with the work we've been doing word has gotten out and we've had a lot of donations of books. Also a nice cash donation that we're using for new shelving as previously there were boxes and boxes of books just sitting in corners.

I'm assuming that the iPads will at least interface with a linux box in some way so as to be able to load different content from the library machine to the tablet?

ks · 2025-05-27 13:09:04

A) The easiest way to get an EPUB onto an iPad/iPod/iPhone for iThings that
have the "Files" app.

Have a webserver running on the server that stores all the EPUB files your
library makes available, probably limited to allow access only from a local
lan and not countrywide.

Open a browser on the iThing, go to the library local website, find the
EPUB there, click it to download. The browser will fetch the ebook and store
it in its Downloads folder.

Use the files app on the iThing, go to the browser's Download folder and
click the book. It'll open in "Books" (previously known as iBooks) ready
to read.

B) Alternative for old iThings without the Files app (which is a recent
addition and not available for old kit).

Install something like "USB Drive". Just had a look on the app store and
found it being called "USB Mobile Disk", but it's the same icon and the
app store says it's installed on my phone (I may have changed the name
below the icon because of its width).

Open the USB app and click Settings at the bottom, click Web File Transfer
near the top and it gives you an IP address on the local lan to connect to
from a web browser on the same lan.

Open a browser on your desktop/server, connect to the iThing's IP, then
locate an EPUB amongst your files, click Upload.

Go back to your iThing, go back to Settings, click Files at the bottom and
you see the ebook name. Click it and it opens an Apple popup thing asking
you what to do with the file. One of the options will be "Books" (iBooks)
which you will click. Books opens and imports into "Books" ready to read.

BTW: "USB Drive"/"USB Mobile Disk" has a 5 star rating, but only a single
review by someone who was older twelve years ago than I am today. I
myself always use this method to upload ebooks I need to test on older
iThings (the oldest iBooks-Version I have is on an iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1.2).

Have fun.

ks

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#1 2025-03-23 00:33:50

Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#2 2025-03-23 01:36:21

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#3 2025-05-24 15:49:35

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#4 2025-05-25 07:49:22

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#5 2025-05-25 09:28:27

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#6 2025-05-25 13:22:14

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#7 2025-05-26 15:21:41

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

#8 2025-05-27 13:09:04

Re: Will Devuan work to convert an older iPad to Linux?

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